'How could he?' GOP senator says red state voters being are 'hurt' by Trump

On Tuesday, a Republican senator revealed that one of President Donald Trump’s latest moves has “let down” and “hurt” MAGA voters. This is according to Senator Mike Rounds (R-SD), who said the president’s decision to import beef has “pulled the rug” out from under South Dakota Trump voters.

"In South Dakota, these folks — they love the president,” Rounds told reporters. “He's like a relative to them, and they just feel like as a relative he just pulled the rug right from underneath them. They're hurt. I mean, they feel like they've been let down. Like, how could our friend, this guy that's as close to us as they've ever been to a president, how could he do this to them?"

Rounds’ statement was in response to Trump recent executive order allowing 300,000 metric tons of beef to be imported tariff-free. These imports must be sold at “25 percent below the market price,” which American beef producers fear will undercut their already suffering business. With this in mind, Rounds spoke about the issue multiple times on Tuesday, in the morning telling reporters, "It feels like the administration pulled the rug right out from underneath a lot of our farmers and ranchers, and this is not going to help. The best way to help is to allow that American cow herd to grow, and the way you do that is you offer more grass.”

While Trump is ostensibly importing beef to lower skyrocketing meat prices at the grocery store, experts say it is unlikely to have a major impact. As Glynn Tonsor, an agricultural economist at Kansas State University who studies meat pricing, told CNN, “I think it’s easily overstated how much it might help." He explained that the cost reductions will be limited because 300,000 metric tons of beef is only equivalent to around 2 percent of domestic beef consumption. What’s more, explains CNN, “the tariff exemptions only apply to beef trimmings, which are blended with other cuts to make ground beef. That means exempting only beef trimmings will limit any overall price cut for consumers, said Tonsor. On top of that, the impact will also depend on whether the imports add to the supply of beef or simply replace beef that processors would have otherwise bought from US suppliers.”

Rounds raised more issues with the Trump administration on Tuesday. When asked about Army Secretary Dan Driscoll’s decision to quit over his disagreements with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Rounds said, “I'm hearing the same rumors everybody else is, that he was frustrated with some of his top generals being released, and that's not the first time I've heard that." According to Rounds, “That points to questions that we're going to be asking when we get back [in session] in terms of: where is the leadership at? We've had some very good generals that are no longer there that we respected, and that had a huge amount of foundational knowledge in terms of moving us forward as far as the change in capabilities that we need to incorporate into the overall fighting force.”

He also noted that he was “frustrated” that Democrats had been excluded from defense discussions. “It needs to be both Republicans and Democrats at the table,” said Rounds. “I think the administration needs to change its focus, and needs to bring this back to a bipartisan effort with regard to the defense of our country.”